When things looked like they could not get any worse for the NAU women’s basketball team, they did. Taking on the conference’s top two teams on the road, the Lumberjacks failed to complete the season sweep of Portland State (PSU) in a 74-56 loss, and they blew a 14-point second-half lead to Eastern Washington (EWU) in a 71-64 defeat on back-to-back nights Feb. 19 and 20.

“We played good for 35 minutes and then played as bad as we could’ve in the last five minutes,” said head coach Laurie Kelly about the loss to EWU. “We were able to build a big lead on the road against the No. 1 team in the league, but we made crucial turnovers and didn’t rebound the ball down the stretch.”

After falling to the PSU Vikings a night earlier, the Jacks gave an inspired effort against the conference’s top team. The Jacks jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead and held a seven-point halftime advantage. But the EWU Eagles battled back to take a 47-46 lead midway through the second half before junior forward Lauren Hoisington’s jumper sparked a 15-0 NAU run to put the Jacks ahead 61-47 with 5:24 left.

Still, the Eagles had one last run in them, holding the Jacks without a field goal the rest of the game and eventually taking the lead for good with one minute remaining.

Despite addressing two of the team’s Achilles’ heels — outrebounding EWU 36-28 and shooting 15-18 from the free-throw line — the Jacks’ demise came in the form of 20 turnovers.

“It came down to turnovers,” said freshman guard Amy Patton. “With [five] minutes left, when they went on their run, turnovers hurt us, and it didn’t help our shot selection.”

In contrast to their play against EWU, the Jacks struggled against PSU. After a back-and-forth affair through the first nine minutes of the game, the Vikings closed the first half with an 18-4 run, and the second half proved to be no different for either team.

The Jacks continued to struggle offensively, helping the Vikings to victory, extending their 13-point halftime lead as high as 23.
The Lumberjacks committed 19 turnovers in the game, 13 coming in the decisive first half. They were also outshot 38.3 percent to the Vikings’ 50 percent from the field and converted only 13 of 21 attempts from the free-throw line.

“We didn’t get shots like we wanted to,” Hoisington said. “They were hitting everything. It wasn’t just one thing. We were getting beat on the boards, and we let them get a lot of second-chance shots.”

Patton continued to build on her strong freshman campaign, tallying her conference-leading 10th and 11th double-doubles over the weekend with team-highs of 18 points and 12 rebounds against PSU and 20 points and 13 rebounds against EWU.

The Jacks look to snap their six-game losing streak when they return to the Skydome for the first of three remaining home games to close out the season. NAU hosts Sacramento State, who defeated them 77-66 Jan. 24 in Sacramento, Calif.

With their hopes of making the conference tournament out of reach, Hoisington said the Jacks aim to play the role of spoilers.

“We’re going to make our last three games count,” Hoisington said. “We have nothing to lose, so we’re going to try and take other teams out of the [conference] tournament.”